The indictment alleges that beginning in and around late 2005, and continuing up to the date of this indictment --
Short and sweet. As the Freepers and several news reports note, Ravenel -- scion of a politically connected Republican clan in SC and touted as potential challenger to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in the 2008 Republican primary -- is also Rudy Giuliani's South Carolina campaign chairman:
"Fruity Giuliani’s SC campaign chairman goes up in flames. Again, be in awe of Fruity’s judgment...
- Russel Harding (child porn, graft, cronyism)
- Bernard Kerik (whores,
graft, illegals, cronyism, incompetence)
- Michael Chertoff
(incompetence)
- Thomas Ravenel (crack)"
And these are their GOP friends.
Inevitably, this report will be posted by someone, somewhere, as another instance of GOP hypocrisy. I'd like to head that off. Not that it will work, but let's keep this in proportion. For one thing, if hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue, then we cd use a bit more hypocrisy. Anyone who opposes land mines and cluster bombs to sound good will still sound better than anyone who does not oppose land mines and cluster bombs.
Second, to call this "hypocrisy" is just an insult to hypocrites. These candidates are not hypocrites; they are impostors. They run for office clouded in some vague aura of wanting improvement or "reform" -- causes that would appeal to most decent people -- when their interest is really no such matter.
As I said to Louie Free -- I've been on his radio show quite a few times -- it's often almost as simple as money on one side, people on the other. The less the big media outlets overlook that fundamental issue, the worse the problems get.
Acc to news reports, Thomas Ravenel is also a distant cousin of oldtime SC Democratic politician 'Pug' Ravenel, known chiefly for being the stoutest opponent (1978) that the late SC Senator Strom Thurmond ever had. Thurmond's campaign manager that year was Lee Atwater. Atwater helped defeat the older Ravenel partly by digging up a politically embarrassing pro-New York videotaped statement made by Ravenel at a fundraiser in New York City.Ravenel, a merchant banker, was convicted in 1995 of bank fraud, entered a guilty plea rather than go through trial, and served 11 months in prison. Ravenel's was among the last-minute pardons issued by outgoing President Clinton -- along with that of Marc Rich, vociferously (and rightly) criticized by Rudy Giuliani, who had attempted to prosecute Rich.
However, Ravenel had met the conditions for pardon: 1) he served his sentence; 2) he paid the fine in restitution; and 3) he expressed contrition.
Clinton pardoned seven individuals from South Carolina.
Stumble It!